Water-soluble carbohydrate compound from the bodies of Herba Cistanches: Isolation and its scavenging effect on free radical in skin

A polysaccharide was isolated from the Herba Cistanches. This polysaccharides contained glucose, galactose, rhamnose, arabinose and fructose. The native polysaccharide could be fractionated by size exclusion chromatography into one major fraction. The apparent average molecular weight of the purified polysaccharide was estimated to be approximately 385 kDa by size-exclusion HPLC. Furthermore, this polysaccharides still exhibited strong antioxidant activities in aged rats’ skin. Namely, Herba Cistanches polysaccharides inhibited the oxidative modification of lipids, thus protecting cells from injury by the oxidized molecules in aged rats’ skin. The present results were in accordance with previous studies on the mode of the protective effect of the plant extract which showed positively that the protection may possibly be attributed to the combination of more than one biological activities and that the use of antioxidants might be an useful approach in the treatment of some skin aging diseases.